As with any attempt to lose excess weight, registered dietitian Jamie Moore of the Lake Wales Medical Center said the emphasis should be on years, not a period of 21 days.

Moore warns that the hCG protocol is not a healthy approach to shedding extra pounds and maintaining the loss.

“All the study and research has come back that the drug itself shows no more effect in losing weight than just simply being on a 500-calorie diet,” Moore said. “The popularity is because it's quick and, in theory, easy. Anything quick and easy, people want to try instead of the old-fashioned way of changing eating habits and losing a pound a week.”

HCG, the acronym for human chorionic gonadotropin, is a hormone women's bodies produce during pregnancy. An analogous hormone is generated by the pituitary gland in both men and women.

Because the hormone helps a pregnant woman's body to metabolize stored fat and convert it into energy, sellers of hCG products claim supplements stimulate the fat-burning process. They claim the body will burn fat rather than carbohydrates, as normally would happen when calorie intake drops drastically.

Though the hCG approach has surged into prominence in recent years, Moore said it is not new. HCG has been employed as a treatment for obesity since the 1950s — in conjunction with a low-calorie diet.

“It came back in popularity in the '70s and sort of went away,” Moore said. “Now it's back the past couple years. It's kind of a cycle, like bell bottoms.”

Moore said a local obstetrician-gynecologist recently asked for her advice about using hCG for weight loss. Moore's opinion is this: No regimen that relies on a 500-calorie diet is likely to generate lasting weight loss.

“You can't even get all your (necessary) vitamins and minerals in a day from a diet of 500 calories,” Moore said. “That's the problem with any of these very, very low-calorie diets. You can't sustain it, and if you go back to your old eating habits you're going to regain the weight. So if people aren't going to learn to cook differently or exercise or change your lifestyle, you're going to regain the weight.”

Moore said she knows a few women who have tried using hCG supplements, and all of them lost weight for a while only to regain it.

Supplements of oral hCG drops can be found in the pharmacy sections at chain stores. Products at a local Walmart ranged in price from $13 to $20.

A few medical offices in Polk County advertise offering injections of hCG.

The promotion of hCG has generated some controversy. Last December, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission issued warning letters to seven companies for marketing non-prescription hCG products labeled as “homeopathic” treatments for weight loss. In the letters, the agencies told the companies those unsupported claims violated federal law.

The products may still be sold but without the “homeopathic” label. While the FDA has approved the use of hCG to treat infertility, the agency has not approved any hCG products for weight loss.

Though Moore warns against using the hCG diet, she said she knows of no studies suggesting the supplements themselves do any harm.

Moore said a typical woman needs to consume 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day. She doesn't deny that a woman could see dramatic short-term weight loss using hCG, but she said the pounds will return without lasting lifestyle changes.

She advises women to cut “empty calories,” such as those from sugary drinks and desserts, and to eat in sensible portions. She said the portions served in American restaurants have swelled by a factor of two or three in recent decades.

Moore said the way to lose excess weight and keep it off can be summed up in four words: Eat less, move more.

“All the studies about weight loss, when you look at people who maintained it five years or longer, are people who have changed their eating habits and have added exercise,” Moore said.

[ Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 802-7518. ]